Process of and apparatus continuous-pressure filtration.



Oct. 2, 1928. i 1,686,093

I F. w. MA 'NNING PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUQUS PBESSURE'FILTRATION Filed A ril 11. 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR F. W. MANNING- PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FdR CCNTINUOUS PRES SURE FILTRATION Filed ril 11 1927 ra ieaio t 2, 192a.-

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PROCESS OI]? APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUS-PRESSURE FILTRATKQN.

' Application filed Apri111, 1 927. Serial No. 182,925.

This, inyention relates to improvemen ts .in the continuous 'treatment of fluids and solids by filtration for the purposes of clarification, decolorization, revivification, ex-

traction,catalysis,precipitation of solids from"- 'fluidsand for other purposes where it is 'de'- sir-able to contact fluidswith solids or vice versa. i It has been the practice heretofore to accomplish the clarification of liquids by means of one thickness'or layer of fabric, and 1f the liquid happened to be of a slimy, mucilaginous, or colloidal character or otherwise difficult to filter, the one thickness was first given a-thin precoating of some treating.

agent, such as kieselguhr or other porous substance so that by means "of collection of the' impurities on, or-distribution of the impurities through the'depth of the thin coating, clarity and a better rate of filtrate -flowoould be obtained. Unfortunately by suchmethocls the treating value of the agent is but very incompletely utilized before it must be discarded or removed for-regeneration purposes, the cloudy filtrate or filter cake forming periods results in considerable lost time, and

the rate of filtrate flow is exceedingly slow due to the compactness necessary for the re- .tension of all the impurities on or in one thickness of fabric. and its precoating ifused. Furthermore, liquids of such character are often volatile and must be handled at high pressures and temperatures and-such conditions heretofore have been found incompatible with continuous operations.

A s distinguished from such prior methods the present invention includes the advantages of continuous operation at any desired pressure and temperature, absolute clarity at all times withoutv any cloudy filtrate for which provision must be made, a high rate of filtrate flow due to the distribution of the impurities throughout a great many thicknesses of fabric, and the complete utilization of the layers of fabric and treating agents with 'whioh the 'fabric may be impregnated,

through action analogousto' counter-current treatment. i -In carrying out the inventionfthe fluid to be treated is passed through-a plurality of layers of filter treating fabric, which arecontinuou sly renewed by the removal of the layer through which the fluid-passes first and which has become practicallyexhausted, and the ad'-' 'ings, in which 2 'on line I-I ofFigu're 2.

dition of a fresh layer to the layer through which the fluid passes last, at which time the fluid has already been treated. In this way the treatment, is carried outwith a maximum of effectiveness. The fabric may be com-. posed of certain treating agents, and may be impregnfled with other treating agents as described in my .co-pending application, Serial No. 182,926, filed April 11, 1927. The fluids are thustreated in a way analogous tothe counter-current method described in" 6 my co-pendiiig applications Serial No. 96,343, filed March 20, 1926 and Serial No. 128,900, filed August 12, 1926, but in a more simple way in that the counter-current treating and filtering actions described in these applications are combined in the present invention.

Furthermore, the present invention not A only provides what is analogous to an improved counter current pr cess and apparatus for thetreating of fluids, ut it also provides 1n same manner for the treating of the utilized treating agents of which the fabric is composed-or impregnated, for regenerating the solids or for recovering absorbed or adsorbed fluids therefrom, or for recovering such liquids or other onstituents and then sub ectlng the solids to a regenerating or revivifying treatment. For example, in the recovery of condensable constituents from gaseous mixtures containing them, suchas 5 the recovery of casing-head gasoline-from natural gas the inventlon provldes an improved continuous method and apparatus for contacting the naturaLgas with an absorbent, i

and the absorbent with its gasoline content 0 to distillation with a gas such as steam, to

drive out the gasoline, and a final treatment Figure 2 is a sectional plan view of the vacuum tank and filtertaken on line Ill-11 9" of Figure 1. J p

Referring more specifically to the drawings by reference characters: The principal sition as structural parts of the filter are the filter upper flange 1, filter lower flange 2, and filter shaft 3, which rests upon a central ball portion of the lower flange and passes out through the .hub of the upper flange. The.

lower flange is supported and held in position by means of pivot bearing 4 and ball bearing5, and the pivot bearing'is fastened to the bottom'plate of the vacuum tank-6. The upper flange is supported and held in position by means of a shoulder on. the filter shaft andan upper ball bearing supported'by the top plate ofthe vacuum ta ,Upper and lower shoe flanges 8 and- 9 respectively are keyed to the filter shaft, and to each upon whose outer ends a e att'ached the shoes U per and lower gears 12', and 13 respec tively lieyed to the filter shaft, engage with the toothed inner ends'of the shoe armsto bring the required, and pins 14 in the shoe flanges prevent backward movement of the arms after they have-reached extended posi- 'tion- The upper "and lower filter flanges are driven by gears 15'and 16 respectively" keyed to drive shaft 17. The lower end of the drive shaft turns in footstep bearing 18 and its upper end passes out of the vacuum tank through stufiing box 19, and by means of jaw clutch 20 engages with gear clutch 21 which is driven by worm ear 22 on shaft 23, and the latter is'driven t rough friction roller 24 by friction late 25.

The direction as the filter flanges, is driven by means of jaw clutch 26 engaging with gear clutch 27 and the latter is driven by gear 28 on. the main drive shaft 29.- When the filter shaft is rotated in the opposite direction to -the filter flanges, clutch 26 is engaged with r clutch 30 which is driven by worm gear 31 on shaft 32. and the latter is driven through friction roller 33 by the. friction plate. The movements ofthe friction rollers 24 and 33 across the face-of the friction plate 35 respectivel. thexouter inner threads res 1 tively on the screw36. Screw 36 is rotated? a ratchet'clutch 37'pinned to the 'screw shaft to move one tooth for each revo- 'lution of the-filter shaft. The friction roller renee whicli are at alltime's coincident with the filter flange betweenthe 7 which is is fastened the shoe armslO and 10"- shoes into extended or nesting po-, 5

'are-controlledby' means of clutcharms 34 and and the latter are actuated by h re means of ter shaft which with a ratchet arm 39, and the latter causes the star wheel 40 keyed to the valve 47' to its feeding 58 is dropped into Iposition in order 7 further rotation of the gear5Z. Helnd'wheel 46 to bring the friction.

- ro ers neaaoes annular windings in use and the contaminated windings wound uponthe nested shoes. The valve is rotated by means of a pin 48 which passes through stufling b01649 and to whose outer end is keyed spur gear '50, and

the latter meshes with spur gear 51 keyed to the outer end of shaft 52 which is supported in bearings 53 and 54. Bevel gear 55 keyed to the inner end of the shaft, is given a "slight rotative movement periodically by means of a. suitable number of bevel teeth uniformly operation the pin m ust be removed.

hand-wheel The reserye filter f brie windings 62"are wound upon a spool 63 whose'lower flange 63" enga es with bevel gear clutch 64 and both spool and clutcharersupported by ball bearing 65 and footstep bearing 66. T heupper end of the s 001 is centered and also supported by pin 6 'fastened to the cover plate 68. The windings may be removed from. the filter and woundupon the spool when required,

through the clutch bevel, gear meshing with bevel gear 69 on shaft 70 which is supported by bearing 71 and which passes out of the vacuum tank through the stufling box 72 and takes the tight and loose pulleys 7 3 and 7 4.

Adjusting screw 75 and brake pulley 7 6 are ter shaft, when rotated 1n the same Inn used to place the required tension on the windings during filtering operations.

Crowned-guide roller 77 supported by up 7 per bearing 78 and lower bearing 79, is used Pen and gases are withdrawn through outlet ipe 80, and the condensate or other filtered.

uid is collected in trough 81 suplportedby brackets 82, and'discharged throng pipe connection 83 whichi'iplasses out of-the vacuum, tank through stu 85 and tlgland. 86 prevent leakage at the point e hub of the upper filter flange asses out of the vacuum ta vents l where the of the hub of the u per filter flange;

The operation 0 the apparatusthus constructed has been in rt indieatedin con nection' with the oregoing" description.

and gland -8 pro:-

filter Shaft passes out g box 84; Stufling box-- Handwheel 61 is to rotate rotary feed position and 'thelrpin to prevent 24 (1-33 to initial-positions, which-in case will Be near but on opposite sides of the circumference of the friction it outer endfof the filter fabric roll overicrown guide roller 77 attached to one of the shoes 11 upon which jaw clutch is thrown into mesh with gear clutch 21 which is driven through worm 22,

"shaft 23 and friction roller 24 by friction plate 25 onthemain drive shaft 29, and jaw clutch 26 is thrown into mesh with gear clutch 27 driven b gear 28' also on the main drive shaft 29. s causes boththe filter shaft and flanges to. rotate in the direction of the full arrow, and the rotationof the shaft .in this direction causes the shoe arms 10 and 10", first to assume an'exte nded position and then to rotate in the same direction. The-rotation of the filter shaft is continued in the direction of the 'full arrow until a suflicient depth of annular windings has been built up, whereupon clutch 26 is disengaged-from gear clutch 27 and engaged with gear elutch 30 which is driven throughworin 31, shaft 32 and friction roller 33 by the friction plate 25, thereby reversing the direction of the filter shaft. LThis causes the shoe arms first to assume a nesting p sitionand then to turn in the direction of the dotted arrow carrying with them the inside end of the annular wind-' llheifluid to be filtered is now turned into the hollow filter shaft 3 and after entering into the rotary feed 7 valve 47 passes out through those valve openings 'Which are coincident with the tdp flange openings to the space between the annular windings and the utilized fabric wound aboutthe nesting shoes.

As the fluid filters through the windings the other liquid flows through the o enings-near condensate, if a vapor is being filtered, or

the circumference of thelower ange and is caught in trough 81 and carried out through pipe 83,. and the vapors are. carried off through outlet 80. A

In order that the-depth of treating fabric windings may be maintained constant and that every unit of thefa-bric be contacted to the same extentwiththe fluid being filtered, it will be necessary under certain conditions to continuously alter the speeds of rotation of both the filter shaft and the annular windings. This is accomplished by,

star wheel 4.0 keyed to the screw shafti36, to i move one tooth for means of the pitches of the two threads onthe-screw shaft 36, and-throughathe ratchet clutch 37 pinned to the filter shaft,' which engages and causes ratchet arm 39 to move every revolution of the filter shaft.

" The space between the removed utilized fabric and the annular windings may decrease asthe diameter of the windings-increase, but. the rotaiy'feed valve gearing actu ated by the IOtEtIOD of the filter flanges,

7 must be such that the opened by the rotation of the valve are always-coincident with the openings' through the'flange into side of both flanges -are 0 this annular space. The grooves in the insuitable shape so :sOhd particles.

claim is:

that internal pressure'on the annular windings makes a "joint between the fabric and the windings g It will thus be seen from the fore oing de-' scription that the movement-of a uid in a given direction is at a' fa ster rate than the movement of the contacting solids in the same direction and the removal of the sur face portion of the solids throfigh which the fluid passes first, and the addition of fresh solids to the surface portion through which the fluid passes last, result in an efficiency of treatment analogous to that obtained by counter-current means but without. the necessity of additionai'means .forclarification urposes. Y r

It will also be evident that if the treating fabric material is made up so that the entire depth of the annular windings is required to give absolute'clarity, the coarser solids will be' retained by the first layers through which the fluid passes, and the finer solid's'by the succeeding layers, and by 'their distribution 2 throughout the entire depth, ofwindings, a-

rate, of flow of filtrate can be obtained that I could not possibly be'obtained by one thickness of fabric of lesser thickness than the total depth of the annular windings. 7

It will furthermore be evidentthat after the treating fabric has been completely 'uti: lized for say the decolorization and clarification of oils and entirely wound upon the nest ing shoes, it may be' quickly removed'by rek winding it on the reserve spool and the filter-.

'ing operation repeated for the purpose of washing the impurities from the treating fabric. repeated for the purpose of impregnating the fabric by passing a conveying fluid therethr )ugh containing a catalytic agent which The operation may then be again ma be in the form of either a fluid or fine I It still furthermore be evident that when it is not desirable to filter a fluid such as a hydrocarbon vapor under suction. means, the vacuum tank may be dispensed with and a super-atmospheric pres'sureusedto force the, fluid through the annular windings, in which case other means may be used to support the filter mechanism and fabric reserve roll in either a vertical or horizontal position.

Ha ing thus described my invention, what" I' the outlet surface layer of the mem:

' 15 -uid to be filtered passes, constant. i

member to provide fresh filtering surface to fi1tered,-and adding a layer of fresh treating fabric to the outlet surface layer of-the' member,:the rate of removal and application of the *said layers maintaining the number of layers in such member through which the liq 4. 'A filtering process conslstmg of passing.

a fluid through a filter member having a plu rality of layers .of treating fabric, cont1nu-, ously removing the inlet surface layer of-the' 0 member torovide fresh filtering surface to filtered, and continuously add-' the fluid to outlet surface layer ofthe member, the rate of removal and application of the said layers maintaining thenumber of layers in such member through which the liquid-itbe filtered passsesx constant.

, ing up a filter member of a'plurality of layers of treating fabric, passing a fluid through said filter member, continuously removing-the inlet surface layer of'the member to provide fresh filtering surface to the fluid to be filtered, and simultaneously adding freshlayer. of treating fabric to the outlet surface portion of the member, the rate of removal and application of the said layers maintainingtha number of layers in such member through which the liquid to be filteredpasses, constant,

' 40 6. A filtering procem consisting of passing v a fluid through a'filter member having aphirality of layers of trea fabric, removing the inlet surface layer of e member in a d1-- rection opposed to the flow of the fluid-,and.

adding fresh treating fabric to theoutl'et sur- -fa ce'layer of the member,'in a direction the same as theflow of the fluid. r v 'Z. A filtering process consisting of passing a fluid through a filter member having a plu rality oflayers'of treating fabric, layers by the removpogghe contaminated la ers in a direction op to fliiid and the addition of fresh con uons-. ly renewing said theflow of the f layers in a direction the'same as the flow of the Y 8 A filtering'process'consistingof a fluid through a filter member, continuousliy renewing the member and-simultaneously-a vancing the member'ina directio the same sum flowofthe liquid but at a I ati ly ducedrateofspeedf is a are afilter member, and .simul ;taneously themember in the same;

a of treating fabric' to the" exterior surface filtering M consisting of build-1 relatively reduced rate of speed.

In l 'i low-cylindrical filter member means within" the member" cooperat- 1 ing therewith forremoving theinne'r surface portion of the member, and means exteriorly ofthe member for adding to. the'exte i I rior surface portion of themeinber. Y

11. In 'a' filter, a. hollow cylindrical filter member having a plurality of layers of'treating fabric, meanswithin the member cooperrating therewith for removingthei inlet surfacelayerof the member, and-means exteriorly'ofth-e 'member'fdr addinga fresh layer ai rorthemembe L- a Ill ffi' y filter member comprisinga roll of filter fabric, a. storage member connected to-one end of'the'f'abric, means for rotating the :torage member to refmove aport" fth b" d- 'o rt'tina mg a layer of fresh treatlng fabnc tothe- Ion o e a an means r o a g hefil er m l to add. thereto fresh POI-D .--tion o'f fabric.

roll of filter fabric, afstorage member connectedto one end of the' fabric, a reserve -member c'onneetedto the other end of. the

fabric, means for rotatingthe storage memher to remove}; portion of fabric from the filter member andmeans' whereby a fresh portion pf-fabric is remov d from the reserve I meniber and wound upon t e filter member.

14. In afilter, a filter member comprising an annular'roll of filter fabric, means forforcing the. fluid to" be filtered outwardly through the roll, a storage member within the filter member connected to the inner end "of the.fabric-,-m eans for rotating the storage member to'remove the inner layer-of fabric, a. reservemember exterior of the filter member'- connected to the outeriend of the fabric, and

me'ans for rotating the filter and reserve 7 membersto transfer a fresh portion of -filter 1 .fabric from the reserve member to the filter" member. a v w 1 I 15. Afiltering process consisting of passvilig-a fluidthrough a filter member'formedj' 0 layers of; filter material, remo'vingthe v Inlet surface portion of the member'to grovide fresh filtering surfacejto-the fluidto 4 e filtered,-and adding aj'fresh filter'layer to. the outlet surface portiongf-thejmember ld'A filtering process-consistin of pass-J layers of filter material, continuously remote ing afluidthrough a filter member; ormedof $1 I "mg-the inlet surface; portion pf themember 1 top'rovide fresh.-filteringf jsurface tothefluid l Y to be filtered,-and' simultaneousl add i gfaa n filter layerto the outlet 'sur ace-portion of the member; p I 17 A filtering process conslstingof pass;

ing a fluid through a filter member "formed of layers- ,material, building 'upjfthe' 131; v

layer, removing the said inlet layer to' form filtered out solidson the fluid inlet surface a conveyor for the filtered out solids, and

simultaneously adding a fresh layer of filter material to the fluid outlet surface portion of the member.

18, In a filter, an enclosure having a circumscribing wall formed of layers of filter material into which fluid to be filtered is delivered, means for continuously removing the inner surface of the wall and simultaneously applying a fresh layer to the exterior surface .to maintain the wall at \a constant thickness.

19. In a filter, an enclosure having a cir; cumscribing wall formed of layers of filter material, storagemeans arranged interiorly ofthe enclosure, supply means arranged exteriorly of the enclosure, and means for continuously transferring the inner layer of the wall to the storage means and for simultaneously applying a fresh layer to the exterior of the wall from the supply means.

20. In a filter, a fluid treating chamber,

having inlet and outlet ports, a well formed of layers of filter material separating the in let and outlet ports and through. which the fluid to be filtered must pass, and means for maintaining the wall at a constant thickness by simultaneously removing a layer of filter material from the inletside .of said wall and adding a layer of fresh filter material to the outlet side of said wall.

21. In a filter, a primary chamberfor receiving fluid to be filtered, a secondary chamher for receiving the-filtered fluid, a partition formed of a plurality of contiguous layers of filter material between the pr mary and sec-. r

supply means to thestorage means by the simultaneously winding and unwinding of the fabric filter wall while maintaining it at a constant thicknessg and means for introducing fluid to be filtred within the confines'of the filter wall whereby it may pass therethrough to be filtered.

FRED w. MANNING. 

